Popular fiction portrays cyborgs as a hybrid of man and machine. Usually they are either robots with a human brain or people who have had some limbs replaced with machine parts. It looks great. But let's be honest: this is long outdated. Modern cyborgs are quite different.
In today's world, the idea of implanting a computer chip in your brain doesn't seem unrealistic at all. And robotic limbs are becoming something commonplace for us. Although none of these cybernetic solutions are designed to improve human health.
Experts argue that the advent of constant Internet connectivity and technologies such as Google search, Wikipedia and YouTube have created an entirely new kind of human being.
Instead of a physiological evolution similar to that through which our ancestors went from oceans to Cro-Magnons, we are undergoing a technological division of species.
It could be argued that homo sapiens is an endangered species. Most people are connected to the Internet every day via smartphones or computers. If everyone on Earth had access to the Internet, it is possible that there would be physiological changes in our brains.
Many people are already cyborgs. Why? Just think about it: how many phone numbers do you remember? Probably not as many as you did 20 years ago. This is because we have allowed our technology to ease our mental burden. Why remember phone numbers when our phones can do it for us?
Will Oremus of Slate thinks this is all being done on purpose: "Google now promises to think for you, speak for you, and take real-world actions on your behalf."
Today it's safe to say that artificial intelligence has replaced human intelligence, because our technology is many times smarter than we are. And we will degenerate until we are independent of a calculator, a phone book and a Google search. At least until the power goes out.
A cyborg is a person who relies on personal technology to do easy jobs in order to free his or her brain for more important things. Whether to fear it or take it for granted is each person's personal choice.
